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As Inauguration Day nears, it’s clear that President-elect Trump believes he has a mandate to enact the largest deportation in U.S. history. What happens next could forever alter what it means to be an American. Immigration under President Joe Biden surged to levels unmatched in more than a century — an estimated net increase of 8 million migrants during his four years in office, with a majority crossing illegally, according to a Goldman Sachs report. Biden was determined to reverse the harsh Trump 1.0 policies that limited both legal and illegal immigration. But Biden never framed this important issue for average Americans. There never was a “Biden doctrine” to help the nation understand why he believed more immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers could prove a net benefit — or sufficient federal aid to help cities and states deal with the consequences. Finally, after Trump killed a bipartisan immigration reform bill, Biden unilaterally re-imposed tighter limits on the southern border — but it was too late to save his candidacy or that of Kamala Harris. Source link

The pace of the spread of highly pathogenic bird flu in Japan has accelerated since the beginning of 2025, sparking concerns over the negative impact on household budgets, such as a spike in egg prices. So far in January, as many as 13 bird flu cases have been confirmed at chicken farms across the country, including multiple cases in the city of Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, and the most recent outbreak reported by the Chiba Prefectural Government on Wednesday. “Bird flu is apparently widespread,” agriculture minister Taku Eto said during a meeting to discuss countermeasures at his ministry on Tuesday. The current increasing pace of infections suggests that the number of cases this month will top the current worst January record of 19 marked in the 2022-2023 season, experts said. To curb the spread, the ministry has been asking poultry farmers to take strict hygiene control measures and report to local authorities as soon as possible if they see something wrong with their chickens. In the current 2024-2025 season, which began last October, 29 cases had been confirmed as of Wednesday, already exceeding 11 for the whole of the 2023-2024 season and 25 for the 2021-2022 season. Recalling that wholesale prices of eggs soared beyond ¥350 per kilogram and “impacted daily meals tremendously” in the 2022-2023 season with 84 cases, an all-time high, Eto stressed, “We must do whatever we can to contain bird flu.” Source link

Helsinki – Europe must boost its military spending and better coordinate its defense amid hybrid threats from Russia and suspected sabotage of Baltic Sea cables, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in an interview. Europe’s “holiday from history is now over,” he told news channel Euronews late Tuesday. Stubb’s remarks came after he hosted a meeting Tuesday of NATO leaders from countries bordering the Baltic Sea in Helsinki. Source link

A Japanese research team has found that more than 40% of people who felt that they slept enough actually lacked sleep. The team, led by Masashi Yanagisawa, professor and director of the University of Tsukuba’s International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine, said Tuesday that there were gaps in many cases between self-assessments of sleep length and quality, and the results of analyses such as those by brain wave examinations. The team concluded that it was hard to make diagnoses of sleep condition based only on self-reported information and that objective measurement is important. The study results are to be published in an online edition of the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Source link

New Delhi – Suzuki Motor is making full-fledged efforts to produce biogas fuel for automobiles using cow feces in India. The automaker is focusing on means other than electric vehicles for realizing carbon neutrality, or the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to net zero. Suzuki Motor President Toshihiro Suzuki and other company executives visited a dairy farm in the state of Gujarat, western India, on Dec. 25 where feces of cows are collected and put into a fermentation tank to extract methane gas. The gas is used as fuel for cooking while the fecal residue is used as organic fertilizer. Source link

Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda joined his deputy in strengthening market expectations for a potential interest rate hike next week, boosting the yen and signaling the central bank is doing its utmost to avoid a global market crash that followed July’s hike. The governor also indicated rising confidence over wage increases after hearing encouraging views at various New Year’s events and at the BOJ’s recent branch managers’ meeting. He was speaking at an event hosted by the Regional Banks Association of Japan on Wednesday. That suggests one of two key elements the bank needs ahead of a rate hike is cleared, as it tries to gauge the future of U.S. economic policy as Donald Trump moves into the White House next week. Source link

The city of Kyoto plans to raise the accommodation tax to a maximum ¥10,000 per night — the highest in Japan — to improve city infrastructure and mitigate crowds amid problems regarding overtourism. The city has been imposing an accommodation tax on tourists staying overnight since 2018, but the maximum amount each facility could charge was ¥1,000 per person per night. “In order to achieve balance and harmony between the lives of our citizens and tourism, it’s extremely important to have citizens realize that tourism isn’t something that is far removed from our lives but rather something that directly connects to the richness of their lives,” said Kyoto Mayor Koji Matsui on Tuesday. Source link

Japanese space startup Ispace launched its second lunar lander, Resilience, early Wednesday in Florida, marking a critical step in the company’s quest to achieve a successful moon landing. The lander, part of Ispace’s Hakuto-R program, lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just after 1 a.m. from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Resilience is expected to land on the moon between late May and early June as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, through which the agency delivers scientific experiments and technology to the lunar surface. The launch follows Ispace’s first lunar landing attempt in April 2023, which ended in failure when a software error caused the lander to misjudge its altitude, resulting in a crash from approximately 5 kilometers above the surface of the moon, according to a company postmortem analysis following the accident. Resilience, which underwent minimal hardware changes from the 2023 version, carries the weight of heightened expectations. A successful landing would make Ispace the first private Asian company to touch down on the moon. “We have applied everything we have learnt,” CEO Takeshi Hakamada said as his opening remarks directly before the launch. “Today is only the beginning… but it is also one of the most exciting moments of every space mission, so I am very happy to be able to share this event,” he added. “We are committed to building the cislunar ecosystem,” he said. “Let’s go to the moon!” The Hakuto-R mission is laden with scientific and cultural payloads, including the microrover Tenacious, which will collect lunar soil for NASA. Additional payloads include a lunar water electrolysis device, a module for lunar food production, and a deep-space radiation probe. Resilience is also carrying a “memory disk” containing the latest register of UNESCO’s Memory of the World program, an initiative that preserves the documentary heritage of humanity, along with a commemorative alloy plate from video game publisher and toymaker Bandai Namco and a small red “Moonhouse” sculpture by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. While Ispace’s team is optimistic, the outcome of the mission remains uncertain. The Falcon 9 rocket is also carrying Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander, which is on a separate trajectory and expected to touch down in March. Source link

Melbourne – Former Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka fought back from a set down Wednesday to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time since the birth of her daughter in 2023, gaining a “little revenge” for her defeat at the U.S. Open. The Japanese star, who won in Melbourne in 2019 and 2021, dropped the first set against 20th seed Karolina Muchova before winning 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. It was her second three-set test in two days after being pushed all the way by Caroline Garcia in the first round. Source link

COPENHAGEN – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to make Greenland a part of the United States and does not rule out using military or economic power to get Denmark to hand it over. Why does Trump want Greenland? Greenland’s strategic location and resources could benefit the U.S. It lies along the shortest route from Europe to North America, vital for the U.S. ballistic missile warning system. The U.S. has expressed interest in expanding its military presence, including placing radars there to monitor the waters between the island, Iceland and Britain, which are a gateway for Russian navy vessels and nuclear submarines. The island, whose capital Nuuk is closer to New York than the Danish capital Copenhagen, boasts mineral, oil and natural gas wealth, but development has been slow. This has kept Greenland’s economy reliant on fishing, which accounts for over 95% of exports, and annual subsidies from Denmark, which cover roughly half of the public budget. In total, Denmark spends just under $1 billion each year on Greenland, or $17,500 for each of its 57,000 residents. A 2023 survey showed that 25 of 34 minerals deemed “critical raw materials” by the European Commission were found in Greenland. They include materials used in batteries such as graphite and lithium, and what are known as rare earth elements used in electric vehicles and wind turbines. Icebergs in Disko Bay close to Ilulissat, Greenland, in 2021 | REUTERS What presence does the U.S. have in Greenland now? The U.S. military maintains a permanent presence at the Pituffik air base in Greenland’s northwest. A 1951 agreement between the United States and Denmark established the United States’ right to move around freely and construct military bases in Greenland as long as Denmark and Greenland are notified. Historically, Denmark has accommodated the U.S. because Copenhagen does not have the capability to defend Greenland, and because of U.S. security guarantees to Denmark through the NATO alliance, said Kristian Soeby Kristensen, senior researcher at Copenhagen University’s Centre for Military Studies. Could Trump buy Greenland? Trump’s Republican allies in the U.S. House of Representatives are trying to build support for a bill, which, if passed, will allow the president to enter into negotiations with Denmark on Jan. 20, when Trump takes office. According to Ulrik Pram Gad, senior researcher and expert on Greenland, the idea of buying Greenland is based on a misunderstanding of international law and the principle of self-determination, which gives people the right to choose their own political status. While Trump has declined to rule out the use of military or economic means to gain control of Greenland, Vice President-elect JD Vance, speaking to Fox News, has dismissed the use of military force. What is Greenland’s status now? The island, a former colony of Denmark, became a formal territory of the Nordic kingdom in 1953 and is subject to the Danish constitution, meaning that any change to its legal status would require a constitutional amendment. In 2009, the island was granted broad self-governing autonomy, including the right to declare independence from Denmark through a referendum. Decades ago, the U.S. under then-President Harry Truman sought to buy the island as a strategic asset during the Cold War for $100 million in gold, but Copenhagen declined to sell. Trump offered to buy it in 2019, but both Greenland and Denmark rejected the proposal. A statue commemorating Hans Egede, the Danish missionary who founded Nuuk in 1728, stands on a hill overlooking the town on Monday. | Ivor Prickett / The New York Times What does Greenland want? Relations between Greenland and Denmark have been strained following revelations of historical mistreatment of Greenlanders under colonial rule. A majority of Greenland’s inhabitants support independence, but they are divided over the timing and potential impact on living standards. Greenlandic politicians have since 2019 repeatedly said they are interested in strengthening cooperation and trade with the United States. However, Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute Egede, who has stepped up a push for independence, has stressed the island is not for sale and that only its people should decide their future. What if Greenland becomes independent? If Greenland becomes independent, it could choose to become associated with the U.S. without becoming a U.S. territory. The island could form what is known as “free association” with the United States that would replace Danish subsidies with U.S. support and protection in return for military rights, like the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau. While there is a push in Greenland to be independent from Denmark, Greenlanders are not interested in a new colonial master, according to Gad, the researcher. Gad also said that Greenlanders would likely ensure their future welfare before holding an independence referendum. What does Denmark say? Trump’s 2019 offer to buy the island was firmly rejected by Denmark and labeled “absurd” by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. When asked about Trump’s renewed interest in January, Frederiksen said Denmark needed to cooperate closely with the U.S. but stressed that Greenland should determine its future. Source link